Origin Story
The ancient Romans were astonished to see smoke and flame ceaselessly rising from a small island off the coast of Sicily. They believed that beneath that ground lay the forge of Vulcan (Vulcanus), the god of fire. Whenever Vulcan hammered out weapons for the gods, they thought, sparks and smoke would burst forth. And so they named the island Vulcano, after the god himself. As time passed, the island's name widened to mean any fire-spewing mountain, and by way of the Italian vulcano it became the English volcano. The image of a volcano as a god's forge — is it not a wonderful one?
To this day there really is a volcanic island called Vulcano off the north coast of Sicily, Italy. The word's birthplace remains right there on the map.
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Online Etymology Dictionaryvolcano (n.): 1610s, from Italian vulcano "burning mountain," from Latin Vulcanus "Vulcan," Roman god of fire, also "fire, flames, volcano"
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Oxford English Dictionaryvolcano: from Italian, from Latin Vulcanus (Vulcan), the Roman god of fire
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Merriam-Webster DictionaryItalian vulcano, from Latin Vulcanus, Vulcan, god of fire and metalworking
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
Vulcan, the god of fire, hides inside volcano. Remember it as: "fire bursts from the god's forge."
""The god is gone, but the fire he tended still wakes the mountains.""
